Health service gets active to cut obesity rate

Fri 25 Oct 2013, 11:10 AM AEDT

The Latrobe Community Health Service says it is working with the state and federal governments to reduce the number of overweight and obese people in Gippsland.

According to the National Health Performance Authority, Gippsland residents are the fattest people in Victoria and the second fattest in Australia, second only to people living in western New South Wales.

The chief executive of Latrobe Community Health Service, Ben Leigh, says a state and federally funded program introduced last year called Healthy Together Latrobe is trying to address the issue.

He says 15 new workers at the health service and the Latrobe City Council are going out into workplaces and schools to teach people how to eat healthy and exercise.

"The real problem is that excess weight leads to a whole range of chronic diseases as we know, type two diabetes is one of those, and that's becoming an epidemic, and heart problems as well, so it's very concerning," he said.